Before we took Annabel and James to our old college campus, we visited the museums that are located directly across the street. Exposition Park has the California Science Center and the LA Natural History Museum. We started at the Science Center because my memories of going there as a kid were great. Lots of buttons and fun things to do.

It turns out, the Science Center is exactly like I remembered. Literally. Here is some of their futuristic high-tech virtual reality:

"Virtual Reality"

That is Mike and Annie “playing volleyball” against a robot. Exactly like I did in 1988.

There was one really cool thing that we all wanted to see at the Science Center, the Space Shuttle Endeavour.

Space Shuttle Endeavour, Mike, Annie

It was enormous, and so cool to see in person. Annie could not get over how big it was, and how it had been to outer space.

After the Science Center, we walked over to the Butterfly Pavillion. It really was so unbelievably cool to walk through the gardens with hundreds of butterflies swooping all around us. They were so beautiful.

butterfly garden

butterfly garden

butterfly garden

We then went into the Natural History Museum. We arrived an hour before closing, so admission was discounted. We didn’t think Annie would be happy about one more museum, but the second we walked in and she saw the giant Dinosaurs in the welcome lobby, she was in heaven.

rawr scary!

Annie hurried from display to display, squealing with each new discovery.

bones!

standing over fossils

looking down at bones

James was like, “Uh, are these dinosaurs going to start walking around a la Dino Dan?”

what the heck, mommy

My biggest regret is that we didn’t start at the Natural History Museum. There was so much to see and we really only saw a fraction of it. The good thing? We were there long enough to get these novelty photos:

ahhhh!

brrr
James’ expression in both of those photos is, “Can you believe these people?”

Unsurprisingly, Annie is now super-into dinosaurs again, and has told me repeatedly that she wants to be a “Dinosaur Digger” when she grows up. Once I replied, “Oh, you want to be a paleontologist?” She said back, “No, I just want to dig up bones and put dinosaurs together. Like legos!”

Aw, my little Ross Geller.